SENDAI, Japan >> A technical college in Sendai has developed a self-propelled robot equipped with ground-penetrating radar, which it recently deployed to search for four elementary school children missing since a tsunami triggered by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, hit Miyagi prefecture.

The March 19 search was conducted on the coast of Ishinomaki in Miyagi, at the request of Miho Suzuki, whose daughter Hana, a fourth grader at Okawa Elementary School, went missing during the disaster.

“It’s OK if it takes some time, but I want them to find Hana at any cost,” Suzuki said.

Jun Sonoda, a professor at the National Institute of Technology Sendai College, converted a snowplow to build the 27-1/2-inch-tall robot.

Its tracks allow it to travel over rocky terrain, and it can accurately provide its location using GPS.

The latest search was conducted on a 650-foot stretch of sandy beach located on the east side of the elementary school, with ground-penetrating radar that scans more than 3 feet into the ground. Buried objects were detected at about 10 locations, and volunteers plan to dig up and examine them this month.

A data set added to the robot will enable it to identify items that are still buried. This will free up search parties to dig only in prime spots.